OLd Testament Patterns of Sisters Useful to God for His Economy - 1

Message Title: the Pattern of Rahab

Jg 6:21And the Angel of Jehovah put forth the end of the staff that was in His hand and touched the flesh and the unleavened cakes. And fire came up from the rock and consumed the flesh and the unleavened cakes. And the Angel of Jehovah went from his sight.

Jg 6:22And Gideon saw that He was the Angel of Jehovah. And Gideon said, Alas, O Lord Jehovah! For I have seen the Angel of Jehovah face to face.

Jg 6:23And Jehovah said to him, Peace be with you. Do not be afraid; you shall not die.

Jg 6:24Then Gideon built an altar there to Jehovah, and he called it Jehovah-shalom. To this day it is still in Ophrah of the Abiezrites.

Jg 6:25And that night Jehovah said to him, Take your father’s bull, that is, the second bull, seven years old; and tear down the altar of Baal that belongs to your father, and cut down the Asherah that is beside it.

Jg 6:26And build an altar to Jehovah your God upon the top of this stronghold in the ordered manner. Then take that second bull, and offer a burnt offering with the wood of the Asherah that you will cut down.

Rahab is an amazing pattern in the Old Testament. when we look at the history in Judges, apparently it looks like Joshua sent the two spies to spy the land. but intrinsically, they were sent to find Rahab, because God prepared Rahab for them. 

God wants to bless us with the good land. God has blessed us with every spirual blessings, one of which is that we are chosen unto sonship, and another of which is that we are redeemed. 

Rahab was living in Jericho, a city of curse, so Rahab was a person dedicated to destruction. but she heard the things about God of Israel and she believed. so through her faith, she hid the two spies who went to her house. and after talking with the two spies, she obeyed their word and she put the scalet thread on her window, which was a sign of the redemption of Christ. 

if we consider our own condition today, probably we are about the same as Rahab. if we see what Paul says concerning us in Ephesians chapter 2.

Ephesians 2:1 And you, though dead in your offenses and sins, 

but praise the Lord, that is not the end of the story. chapter 2 of Ephesians continued on!! we were saved and have been made alive !!!

Ephesians 2: 5 Even when we were dead in offenses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved) 

Rahab was delivered from the destruction of Jericho, but what is after is even more amazing. it is easy for us to be saved, to believe into the Lord, but we all know that what comes after our salvation is more challenging. look at Rahab. after that, she married Salmon, who is one of the leader in Israel. what is the significance of Rahab being married to Salmon. think about ourselves. after we are saved, we still have all the rest of our life to live. are we just going to wait until we die and go to heaven? NO! after we are saved, we need to join ourselves to the proper and meaningful people in the Lord, and this will have an issue, which is that she bore a son who was called Boaz. Boaz married Ruth, of whom the grandson was Jesse, the father of king David. so the issue of Rahab marrying Salmon is that they became in the line of geneology of the Lord Jesus, which means that they contributed to bring Christ forth. the right person we should be joined to is the person that we can love and pursue Christ, enjoying Christ together day by day. 

in the Old Testament, there was no woman in the geneologies. but in the geneology of the Lord Jesus in the New Testament, there were five women mentioned. if we are going to write our own geneology, probably we will all hide these names who were not "that good" in our eyes. but in the Lord's geneology, there was Tamah, Rahab the harlot, Ruth the Moabitess, Bathsheba the wife of Uriah. why were these women included in the Lord's geneology? it was to testify when the Lord came, He came to be identified with the sinners. this gives us hope, that the Lord is the Savior of sinners. 

I. when the two spies came to Jericho, Rahab (who was both a harlot and a Canaanite) contacted them and was willing to receive them, hide them, and deliver them by acts that issued out of her faith; she believed in the God of Israel and declared, "Jehovah your God, He is God in heaven above and upon earth beneath"

Jehovah provided Rahab the harlot to Joshua for the gaining of the land, because of her faith in God, she "did not perish with those who were disobedeint" (Hebrew 11:31); she turned to Israel and their God, and she trusted in Him and His peiple. 

Rahab tied the scarlet thread in the window, which typifies an open confession of the redeeming blood of Christ. we should also be like Rahab. we cannot be secret Christians. we should open our mouths to confess that we have believed into the Lord Jesus. 

this shows that regardless of our background, if we turn to God and His people and are joined to the proper person among God's people (in a spiritual sense), we will bring forth proper fruit and participate in the enjoyment of the birthright of Christ. 

II. after the destruction of Jericho, Israel was defeated at AI; at Jericho, according to God's economy, Joshua sent out spies, not for fighting but to gain Rahab; but at AI, because Israel had lost the presence of the Lord, Joshua sent out spies for fighting. 

this is a very important spiritual principle in our Christian life, that we should always rely on our Husband, the Lord Jesus, never doing something on our own. whenever we, as the wife of the Lord, do something or make decision on our own, we open the door for the devil to come in. 

III. Joshua 9:14 is a very powerful portion of the Scriptures that shows why the children of Israel were deceived by the Gibeonites - "they did not ask for the counsel of Jehovah" (Joshua 9:14); thus Joshua made peace with them and made a covenant with them to let them live. 

the children of Israel were deceived because they were like a wife who forgot her usband. a wife should never leave her husband; rather she should always rely on him and be one with him. it is a big release and safeguard that as wife, we should check with the husband. 

the result of Israel's not seeking the counsel of her Husband was that this independent and individualistic wife was deceived, and she had no protection, no safeguard; from this record we need to learn that , as the Lord's wife, we should co-live with Him, always relying on Him and being one with Him all the time.